Bertien van Manen is a Dutch artist whose work is on display at Yancey Richardson in New York.
The current show features images from her travels across Russia, where she photographed people she befriended in the intimacy of their own home. Her style is an intriguing mix of documentary and personal.
Van Manen has an earlier series called “Give Me Your Image” which immediately caught my eye. During her travels all over Europe, she began staging images in people’s houses, selecting a family photo, an image dear to someone and shooting it in the context of their bedroom or entryway, posed on a dresser top or kitchen table. Pictures within pictures. Scenes within scenes. The physical proof of an intangible emotional connection to another person.
